State Senator looks to clamp down on parole violators

After seeing a KCRA 3 investigation documenting how hundreds of parole violators are failing to wear their GPS tracking devices, State Sen. Ted Lieu has decided to introduce legislation addressing the problem.

“These parolees are really the most dangerous ones,” Lieu told KCRA 3. “It is a public safety danger.”

In November, KCRA 3 found 1,165 parole violators in California -- many of them sex offenders -- have cut off or disconnected their GPS electronic monitors after being released from prison. As a result, those parolees are unaccounted for and authorities have no way to track them down.

Even if they are caught, those parolees won’t be going back to prison.

Under California’s controversial prison realignment plan, cutting off a GPS bracelet is merely a parole violation. If caught, parolees would be sent to the local county jail, but only if there is room.

“Right now they’ve discovered that if they cut off their GPS bracelets, sometimes there’s no consequence because the county jails are full,” Lieu told KCRA 3. “Sometimes they go to county jails for just a few days, and they’ll take that risk and cut off their bracelets,”

Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, told KCRA 3 he will introduce legislation making it a new felony crime for parolees to remove their GPS monitors.

If the bill becomes law, parolees caught tampering with their electronic bracelets would be sent back to state prison.

“This bill will help enforce realignment by making sure that parolees who have GPS bracelets don’t cut them off,” Lieu told KCRA 3.

Lieu said he’s already lined up a co-author. So far, there is no organized opposition.

But sending parolees back to state prison is expensive. It costs taxpayers $48,906 each year to house just one inmate, according to a study by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. Sending all 1,165 of those parole violators back to prison would cost about $56 million.

Supporters say the costs will actually be much less, calling the bill a powerful deterrent for parolees who don’t want to return to prison.

“The costs will go down because of the consequences,” said Mike Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group that works closely with law enforcement and crime victims.

“Most people don’t run red lights because of the fee,” Rushford said. “And so if you’re a sex offender and you know you’re going back to prison if you cut off that GPS, you won’t do it.”

Now it’s up to the new Legislature, just sworn in on Monday, to approve a major fix to realignment.

Lieu said he will formally introduce the measure when lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.